Subsurface Secrets

Often overshadowed by natural baits and traditional trolling lures, deep-diving swimming plugs remain #1 on my wish list of favorite lures!

For just about as long as i’ve been fishing, i’ve always stashed an assortment of reliable deep-diving plugs in my tackle bag. I often refer to them as “skeletons in my closet.” Reason being; i keep them a secret.

I only bring them out when i know my objective is to cover a large expanse of offshore water that i am not familiar with, or when i just want to test a well-known territory in tough conditions. During either scenario, dragging a pair of proven deep-divers gets the job done! The tackle permits the exploration of potentially promising segments of water and does it effectively and economically.

Really, it should come as no surprise to saltwater anglers anywhere that deep-diving plugs – perfect imitations of wounded baitfish - are particularly effective for inviting savage strikes from schooling pelagic predators such as king mackerel, amberjack, bonito and even stray wahoo. However, the popularity of these subsurface action-seekers along florida’s northwest coastline over recent years has exploded. Not because of the lures effectiveness against the usual array of blue water gamesters, but rather because of their fish-attracting appeal along the beaches and in the shallower passes inhabited by monster redfish. Combined with their offshore allure, this inshore attractiveness validates the wide versatility of deep-divers and substantiates why every saltwater angler - inshore or off - should never leave the dock without them.

It’s unfortunate that many fishermen continue to overlook big-lipped hard-body baits as prime fishcatching machines because when used in the right conditions with the proper tackle and techniques, deepdivers can outperform live bait. That’s right, outperform live bait! The advantages are easy to recognize. Unlike live scad or hardtails which can be fairly unpredictable, with deep-diving swimming plugs, anglers can determine at exactly what speed and at precisely what depth the bait swims while always having the ability to select the artificial lure’s size, shape and color to mimic natural prey species. Full control of your presentation comes with a level of confidence knowing that your offering is in the strike zone 100 percent of the time.

One memorable case in point of how significant this versatility can be quickly comes to mind. It was one day in the fall a few years back. We were off Pensacola Beach searching for the schools of big, bull redfish that were tearing up anything they could catch only days earlier. During previous trips, we were sight-fishing the hungry reds by working pockets of bait pushed to the surface by the ferocious feeding frenzy below. However, during this beautiful autumn day, there was no surface activity to be found. Not a single splash or feathered friend anywhere in sight. I remember thinking that it was actually kind of peculiar. It appeared the northern Gulf was void of life. In spite of this, instinct told me this wasn’t the case so I went about the business of deploying a pair of dependable Stretch 25s on a scouting mission. Focusing on an edge in 28 feet of water where we found fish in the days prior, I set the lures at approximately 100 and 120 feet behind the boat and worked the line at a slow but steady pace. Closely watching the bottom machine for signs of life, it only took a few minutes for pogies to reveal their hiding spot only feet from the bottom. With the food source present, I was hoping it wouldn’t be long before ravenous redfish would show up. Fortunately, my instinct was correct and only minutes later, both rods screamed to life.

With line simultaneously peeling off the pair of TLDs, I knew a duo of stocky reds had chased down and crushed the hard-body baits. Enjoying every minute of the doubleheader, we went on to release both glorious fish. Not long after repositioning on the numbers, I once again marked the bait pods just seconds before both sticks again jolted to life. Luckily, the pattern of “find the bait, find the fish” continued long enough for my clients to land over a dozen quality fish. Many of which were chunky 18 - 22 pounders’ highlighted by a pair of bruiser bulls pinning my 30 lb. Boga!

Till this day, I solely attribute our success to the deepdivers. Without the subsurface swimming plugs, we may have simply moved on to what could have been a very long day. That’s one of the greatest attributes of big-lipped lures – they are so effective at locating feeding fish rather than having to wait for feeding fish to locate you.